Homemade Christmas - Playdough

Well, I haven't been doing much blogging lately, have I?  It has been such a busy hectic time as I mentioned earlier this week.  Despite the month of December slowly turning into a monster, I've been trying to maintain some sort of merry in our Merry Christmas. 

We've had some minor stuff going on like the printer crashing, the laptop monitor busted and Caleb and I having the stomach virus.  This wasn't much to deal with, but then the big stuff happened.  My father n law was airlifted to the hospital and was in ICU, my mother n law had to have a blockage removed in her heart and Caleb ran into the coffee table and got a huge nasty bruise by his eye.  As of today, most everything has or is being resolved.  My husbands parents are both doing much much better and Caleb is doing a lot better, too.  Thank the Lord. 

But on to the Play dough.

I'm finally getting another post up of some of my homemade gifts.  Play dough.  It's one of Caleb's favorite things and I knew this would make a great gift for him.  I'm no longer making the rainbow crayons.  I suppose I must have accidentally thrown all the broken pieces away because I don't know where they got to. 


  Ingredients:   1 cup flour 1 cup water 1/4 cup salt 2 tsp cream of tarter 1 tsp vegetable oil food coloring      

  Dump all the ingredients in a pot except the food coloring and mix together. 

    Cook over medium heat.  It will start to thicken.

  Keep stirring the dough until it forms a ball.  When it is no longer sticky, it's done. 

  It's done.  This is one of three balls that I divided the dough into.    

  I poked my fingers in the middle and added some food coloring.

  Next, knead and mix the food coloring in the dough.

  Green play dough!

  I used an old peanut butter jar that was cleaned out to store the play dough.  I added some cookie cutters to make a finished gift.   I know Caleb is going to love it.  He is always eyeing the play dough in the toy aisles in the store and it's been a good while since we've had some in the house.  Now, finding this smashed into the carpet, I'm probably not going to like that too much. lol

"Letting My Light Shine For Jesus" Lantern

So I'm sure everyone is familiar with the old paper lantern. It's been around forever. Well, one year when I taught Sunday School, I decided to incorporate them into a lesson.

What do lanterns do?
They give off light. They help you see. "They are a light in the darkness."

So how can we be a light in the darkness? How can we let our light shine for Jesus?

I decided this lantern activity would be perfect to make for Holidays. 'Tis the season of giving!

I'm pretty sure you already know how to make the lanterns, but just in case you don't...

We folded our paper in half longways and cut strips in the folded side. (Not all the way to the end)

Open up your paper and write on the strips ways you can let your light shine for Jesus.

    We can help others.  In what ways?

 

  Mathew 5: 14-16         “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Caitlyn Has A New Do!

I had gotten lazy with Cate's hair lately because it is just too big and thick.  We were making good use of puffs and two ponytails. We also "forgot" to wash it on Sunday.  There was just so much going on. So I finally washed her hair yesterday and decided to spruce it up a little. She requested a mohawk but I wasn't sure I could pull that off and make it look decent, especially since I have no idea how to braid.  I do a lot of twisted styles with her hair but I need to jump on that braiding bandwagon.

 
I ended up twisting it across the back and doing two strand twists on the side.  (After row three, I almost gave up.)  Then I put perm rods in to curl the ends.

Note:  Perm rods are instrumental in keeping a toddler quiet.  Caleb stood at the table for a good while hooking and unhooking.  I've just found him a good independent, SILENT, fine motor skill activity.
This is what it looks like this morning.

    This is what it looked like this morning after taking the rods out and separating the curls a little.

  We are both happy with the new do!  Hopefully, it will last until the end of next week.

Toddlertivities- Randoms

Sorting letters made with construction paper.

Sorting colors can be done with anything. The cups are saved from Italian ice cups.

Tip: Use a frisbee as a large paint dish. It holds the mess better.

Shape collages

Matching crayons colors to flashcard colors. Can be done with any item.

Cutting station! Nothing can go wrong here, right?

Chalk shapes. Race to get to the right one or, on occasion,use a poor Elmo stuffie to toss into the right shape.

I love doing activities and educational things with Caleb especially when I can come up with things that are FREE or CHEAP. However, there are many days where I just don't care to do anything (the past two weeks for example), so we do stuff like this...

Toddlertivities: Nursey Rhymes

We've been working on nursery rhymes for the past two weeks. Regardless how evil I just realized "Rock-a-bye- baby is, I still love nursery rhymes. However, they were some days we didn't learn a tisket or a tasket because mama was tired. Here are a few of the ones we picked.

The Five Little Monkeys

I traced some monkey figures we had for this one.

The Wheels On The Bus

We painted a bus, cut out people from magazines and sales ads, and glued them on along with wheels.

This Little Piggy

Three different size circles and fingerprints for the eyes and nostrils.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

We traced his hand then added cotton balls.

The Ittsy Bitsy Spider

The most terrifying craft of all. Lol. We used two circles and glued strips on the back.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Rattling up the foil was the most fun in this activity. Shiny stars in the night sky.


Then we painted one.

Humpty Dumpty
We decided to do an egg drop for this one. So here's Humpty.

This is Humpty #2. Our 1st one was in a minor accident and suffered emotional and physical trauma by the hands of Caleb. Needless to say, this is why #2 looks so frazzled. That and the fact that he knew once he had broken up, he'd be lunch. Lol

We positioned Humpty over the basket and tipped him over. And made it. I let Caleb keep tipping it over until he was good and broken up. I gave him the first one and the basket to let him do it on his own and the little scientist came out. He was moving and repositioning the egg and basket trying to make them align. Smart little booger. ( We used hard boiled eggs unlike last time - big mess and no breakfast. The kids did this for school once and we also did it home with uncooked eggs. We went through a carton)

We sung, read books and watched YouTube videos for the nursery rhymes.
He really likes This Little Piggy.

The Funzone

On Tuesday, we were off to the dentist to get some cavities filled.  I wasn't exactly thrilled because it was going to cost near $400 to fill three cavities that Caitlyn had.  It was just too close to school to spend that much money.  However, after some reexamining by the dentist, he decided not to bother them because they will likely fall out soon.  He said unless, they were bothering her, he would just leave them alone. 

Yall, I was shouting!  I had to give God praise because I didn't have $400 to start with.   I sure didn't want to spend it on teeth... especially at the start of the school year.   This was a huge budget buster!  All I could say was, "Thank you, Lord!"

So I decided we would go the fun zone center to celebrate.  We almost got lost trying to find it but we ended up in the right place.  We decided to attempt our best Tiger Woods impressions and play a game of golf, first.

    The kids were thrilled.     I'm not sure if Caleb was getting his golf swing or his batter's swing ready.  Eventually he decided his foot and hands would work just as well to get the ball in the holes.  Aj acted like he was a pro.  He left all of us.     The little men are shooting some hoops.      We played a few games and it was so hard to get some good pictures.  I really need want a new camera.   Then, we stopped to eat and saw this guy to wrap up the day.   Thank God for that blessing.